Second Earth War
The Second Earth War '''(also known as the '''Second War, the Battle of Eastern Kingdoms or the Dinith Spring) was an armed conflict affecting the entirety of the supercontinent of Eastern Kingdoms, with all nations from the League of Highlaw alliance sending forces to invade Avantia and Phoenixgarde with the intention of liberating the two human nations from the occupation of orcs and ogres under the combined forces of the Prarvian Expedition (led by First Warlock Vez'nan and the Genesis Order) and the New Brotherhood (a class of void-worshipping clerics led by Dark Lord Il'grogg). The conflict lasted between 7 and 11 AGY. Two years after the conclusion of this conflict, further wars ensued as attempts to secure longer-term peace for Middle-Earth. Background Following the end of the First War, the kingdoms of Avantia and Phoenixgarde in Dinith had been overrun with orcs, and there was a high probability that they would attempt to destroy the other still-standing nations. Deadeye, Warlord of the Orcs and military commander of Prarvis, was greedily eyeing up northern territory, particularly Kha'Zad and the south of Laudrin. Il'grogg and his ogre magi were, meanwhile, still scouring around for a glimpse of the planet's elemental centre, a place where they could summon their god, the Chaos Eldritch Forerunner known as Cxuirva. His allegiance to the void aberration wore heavily on Il'grogg's heart, and he was keen to see off his end of the deal before the god's terrible wrath was unleashed upon the few ogres still alive. Vez'nan, in pursuit of yet more demonic power, had sent some orcs out to sea to find the site of the Sundering. Meanwhile, the traitorous witch-queen Coletta le Fey was still extremely powerful, intent on harnessing the power of the orcs to level Grevalon and built a terrifying new society, ruled in her image, on top of it. To do so, she was completing a horrific new spell - the Hand of Damnation, which would supposedly bring forth Ancient Ruination - but she needed time for it to work. To expedite the process, she began the systematic conscription of female magi, handled by her vast and well-planned network of bandits and other mercenaries. They kidnapped female mages around magic schools and arcanum fields, to be dragged kicking, screaming and crying to Coletta's coven where she would drug them and forcibly fill their bodies with horrible dark magic that would see them consciously commit themselves into her fold. Thus, she was steadily building up structures of power that threatened the safety of all of Grevalon, including the de-magified Commoncrown area. The disastrous war to save Dinith had sent ripples of fear through the entire region as everyone feared their neighbours would be next. Spurred on first by the death of her brother Kaarlo and secondly by the precarious nature of the situation, Princess Silana Atherton of Grevalon succeeded in getting the Regent Lord of Phoenixgarde, Kaiden Spalding, to secure her an audience with the human leaders of the other five free nations. This was held in Highlaw, the capital city of Laudrin. At first the Princess was not taken seriously, and Chamberlain to the House Roulet Belvazad Coldstream humiliated her with his deriding remarks. The intervention of High Clerist Indira Lightshield restored Silana's courage, and she concluded her speech to rapturous applause. She then presided over the declaration of the League of Highlaw, an international alliance which spread to Ironforge, Aerie Peak and eventually Quel'thalas. Together, they planned to push back the invasion and drive the orcs and ogres out of Middle-Earth for good. Around the same time, the ancient dragonflights were reintroduced to the world, as the machinations of their traitorous queen - Tiamat - once again threatened the dragonic race. Unbeknownst to Deadeye, Vez'nan or Tiz'galath, Il'grogg was allied with the Chaos Gods, as was Tiamat. Accepting the powers bequeathed to her by their whispers, her terrible darkness spread across dragonkind like a plague over a small village. Establishing a stronghold over the icy wastes of Tundra Bay near Ikljord, her experiments with magic threatened produced a powerful new weapon - the Pentaforce of Power - but she needed more samples from the other dragons to make it work. Using magic to take dream spirit form, she appeared in the nightmares of several ogre magi, including Vovasor, and held them hostage in their dreams until they spiritually agreed to follow her and her hateful regime. Surrendering to the dragonqueen's power, the ogres deserted Il'grogg and made a pilgrimage to Tundra Bay, where in an instant, Tiamat's draconic servants mentally arrested them and delivered their souls into the hands of their possessed queen. Tiamat, now telepathically in control of the lackeys, dispersed them into Eastern Kingdoms disguised as elves in order to extract the essence of the other four dragonflights to complete the Pentaforce. Their combined powers proved more than enough. With the Pentaforce complete it came with an unexpected benefit - allowing Tiamat to see into the sanctums of the other dragonflights. Knowing the power of the ruby sanctum, she enslaved the red dragonflight - including their leader, Lady Arythna - and used Rhok'zud to keep her in check. War timeline 7''' *League of Highlaw began the campaign against the expedition in early 7 AGY. In Kha'Zad, the orcish fleet assaulting Blackridge was expediently defeated and pushed back by a small-sized outpost guard led by Lorcan Ironwill. Their key to success was using some re-animated War Golems as tanks to keep the orcs engaged so the dwarves could knock out their ships one by one. Another fleet ran aground trying to avoid the above situation, by sailing into the Death Bay Bypass (named so because it is a perilous location for sailors...the orcs were fatally unaccustomed to Kha'Zad terrain). All 39 orcs on-board the ''Voyager ''were killed, including Deadeye's son, Mal'Gash. '''8 *Deadeye recruited the troll leader, Witch-King Aman'jin (a descendant of Zanzil), to the Expedition. The trolls were getting irritated with the allied races, particularly humans and high elves, due to hurt sustained in the Elf-Troll Wars. The troll witch doctors were potent in their art but few in number. Deadeye hoped to use these men in his upcoming siege of Laudrin, one of the few chances the Expedition had to win the war by this point, now that the Kha'Zad experiment wasn't working. Speaking of which... *...the Kha'Zad campaign was failing miserably. A string of attacks against Blackridge, Highrock and Vesuvium were repelled, partly thanks to poor weather, which made fighting almost impossible for the invaders. The Ironwill and Strongbow dwarves, used to the harsh terrain, had no problem seeing off the attacks. Deadeye then issued orders to cut off the invasion, but Lorcan Ironwill intercepted and slew the messengers, leaving a gap between commanders. This meant the Expedition was committing resources into a lost war. *Over at Dinith, Il'grogg ordered a force of ogre foot soldiers and magi commanders into Avantia to destroy any remaining allied presence on the contient. Phoenixgarde was already captured, but Il'grogg feared King Medwin's still being alive could spark a reversal of fortune for the orcs in Dinith. 9''' *With the war in its midstage, the League was gaining momentum, while the Expedition was struggling to maintain its. A daring Northern assault, then, scheduled for the succeeding year, was called to action. The orcs began an attack against Laudrin proper, sailing around the epicentre of the Sundering to deploy troops at the Scattered Shore. The first orcs to land attacked the Oldharbour Convent, a chapel belonging to the Order of the Holy Light. Indira Lightshield, the High Clerist, had little advance warning by the time the orcs arrived. Realising that the situation was dire, rather than surrendering to the orcs, she called on all the clerics of the Convent and they channeled their collective power into a single ritual that would summon the essence of the Light onto Middle-Earth, also known as an intervention. The Orcish commander, Jalos, ordered the clerics to open the gates of the chapel, but Indira refused, saying that he had better leave or the Light itself would rise against him. Jalos laughed at her retort, saying that he admired her faith, but found it equally foolish. Just as he spoke such words, the Light smited him and he died on the spot, throwing the orcish invaders into disarray. **Simultaneously, Tundra Bay began its own attacks, with ogres loyal to the dragonqueen Tiamat invading upper Laudrin and attempted to breach Quel'thalas itself, using the power of dragons enslaved from Lady Arythna's flight. Arythna herself was being held in the icy chambers of the Obsidian Hold, in Frostedge, on the outskirts of the Aurilian Empire. Orguld Cruelfang, Mehla Steelhammer's former tutor, was mercilessly abusing her to get her to produce more fertile red dragons for the orcs' war games. They met with Aman'jin's forces and launch the grand invasion. **King Reamonn Roulet, realising the danger, withdrew troops from the northern tip to support the rest of the Kingdom against the orcs, which annoyed - but did not significantly ruffle - the elven king Meridan Dawndancer. He was worried about the size of the elven army, which wasn't very large for the time. *Vez'nan's private fleet is attacked by the merfolk led by King-Adjudicator Aquarius off the Great Eastern Sea, and the First Warlock falls into a terrible coma, weakening his grip on his minions. '''10 *Admiral Holt, Lord of Midrule, lead the counterattack against orc units in Laudrin proper. His forces destroyed the orcish navy, cutting them off from almost all support, while the actual invasion was stalled hard by High Clerist Lightshield and the rest of the Order of the Holy Light's forces, particularly their paladins, religious knights who spread the power of the Light of creation with them wherever they went. Many an orc were utterly incinerated by the force of the Light burning through enemy ranks. Mardon, Hillstead and Beaumont were all major orcish defeats, and the war effort began to fail at yet another juncture. *Reptilostrasz, the Prime Consort of Arythna (disguised as the elven mage Vermilius) was monitoring the north of Laudrin when the ogre magi arrived, and he helped to defend the kingdom against their assaults alongside several senior magi from Grevalon, who had been commissioned by Princess Atherton and Archmage Aldred Spellthorne themselves. After their victory, Vermilius managed to capture and interrogate one of the ogres, who revealed Tiamat's evil plot with the Pentaforce of Power and the dragon essence her ogre lackeys were farming. Together with Archmaga Aurelia and the junior paladin Galador, storm Tundra Bay to take on the Obsidian Hold. Even some of the Arachni join in the assault, hoping to bolster the Aurilian Empire by doing so. *Il'grogg eventually heard about the treachery of the other ogres who had betrayed him to follow Tiamat, and he was incensed. He had secretly planned to follow his own path even within the Prarvian Expedition, and now he had to deviate from his deviation. He approaches Mehla, who is hiding in Laudrin at this point, and sends her to Ikljord to find out who was responsible for betraying him. She ostensibly agrees to do so, but in reality has no intention of obeying the two-headed ogre. *The invasion of Laudrin was far from successful. The Bowmasters Guild, led by the archer Belyssra Morrowood, saw off many of the attacks before they even reached open territory due to their superior knowledge of the terrain. They also borrowed some of the Arverni troll tactics of making quick attacks before slipping into the darkness. However, when the Witch-King's voodoo trolls started beating down on the outlying settlements of Quel'thalas, the Bowmasters and Elementalist magi soon found themselves outmatched. Belyssra knew what she needed to do: stall the invasion for as long as possible until back-up arrived. At the same time she appreciated the difficulty in moving King Dawndacer to action. Thus, the Guild Captain hatched an ambush against the trolls. They ostensibly entered a nearby forest, causing the trolls to emerge from the shadows and attack. However, the lighter-armoured elves then about-turned and fled into the walls of Silsalin, drawing them out of their defensive position. The trolls were subsequently slaughtered, and Belyssra brought some of the captives to Meridan himself. When the King realised the trolls were involved in the war, he was moved to action, memories of the Elf-Troll Wars his forefathers fought many millenia ago. Iyush Sparkblood, one of the Bowmasters, then asked the King for permission to create and train a group of elite elven warriors who would add bulk to the already-talented elven armies of archers and magi. Thus, this was done, and the Thalassian Knights joined the war effort on the side of the League. Seeing how the war here was lost, Deadeye withdrew his orcs from Quel'thalas, while Aman'jin ignored his advances and ordered the trolls to keep besieging the elven kingdom. This prompted the League's forces to recovene in Highlaw, courtesy of Regent Lord Spalding, in order to coordinate a single push for Dinith to destroy the Expedition once and for all. After their defeat at Quel'anore, the orcs were in full retreat. *While on campaign, Aldred Spellthorne was assassinated, probably by a Nightwatch agent. 11 *The last year of the war, where some of the most fierce fighting took place. *Vez'nan recovered from his coma, but had since forgotten about Mehla. He was completely unaware that she was, courtesy of Aurelia and Vermilius, communicating with her father back on Prarvis to secure her future as an alien on the planet. Instead, he started mining the sundering epicentre for demonic artefacts to bolster his power over the rapidly-declining Genesis Order. Aquarius, however, resisted him furiously, and, tapping into his shamanistic side, opened a portal to Primus to let thousands of water elementals into Middle-Earth, which doomed the orcs. His wife, Queen Primarina, came in with the main force to clean up the marauders. The result was that the orcs were forced to retreat and dock by Sherwood Island. The A'manu wood elves and southern human clans both agreed that they were not welcome on the island either, so High Chieftain Frieder Niall and Archdruidess Sylvena Verdana joined forces to extirpate them from Sherwood forever. The military operative against the orcs was carried out by First Ranger Laconia Thunderthistle, and her Wood Rangers managed to flush out the orcish forces as far up as Sherwood Outpost. This came at the expense of her husband Zenath, who was shot by an unidentified human during a heated skirmish. *Back on icy Ikljord, Lady Arythna was freed from her captivity in Obsidian Hold. After utterly killing Orguld, she rallied the other flight leaders to the location for the final battle with Tiamat. Despite the Pentaforce of Power, Arythna's liberation broke its harmony, resulting in Tiamat being banished back to Primus in agonised howls. The last thing she did before being sucked into the portal was swear her revenge, for an Age of Reckoning would come. She warned Arythna, the other flight leaders, and the mortals, that they were on "borrowed time", and all things would soon come to an end. *Led by the charismatic Lord Spalding, the League of Highlaw snowballed its way through Laudrin, Kha'Zad and Dinith, where the deposed Avantian King Medwin Wenthelen met with rest of the force for the final battle against the Genesis Link. The ferocious conflict, believed to be the bloodiest in the war, saw over 9,000 humans fall in a single night, and well over 16,000 orcs. In the midst of the chaos, Lord Spalding valiently charged at and personally fought with Deadeye, who was determined not to disappoint his master Vez'nan. He was not even aware of the warlock's betrayal. As he saw his once elated forces dying around him, with orcs, ogres and trolls alike running for the rapidly collapsing Genesis Link, his attention was split - as was his face the moment he relented. His heavy body collapsing to the floor was the straw that broke the Expedition's back, and the orcs were now in full flight. Ordering firepower in heavy quantities, the League's magi began weaving a collective spell that would close - but not destroy - the Genesis Portal, out of fear that it would cause a violent reaction. They succeeded in doing so, and mopped up any residual orcs that failed to escape in time. The war was over: Vez'nan had been captured by the merfolk, Deadeye was dead, and the Genesis Portal was permanently incapacitated. Coletta le Fey remained at large, but was incensed at seeing how her plan had failed, and was left wondering whether she should have simply stuck to her own course of action instead of allying herself with such fools. On the field of battle itself, Princess Atherton - now an admirably self-confident 28-year-old - delivered the victory speech of the war to rapturous applause. Aftermath In the aftermath of the war, the remaining orcs were either executed or held in carceration facilities. Grevalon's magi also began a period of intensive research, studying the Genesis Portal to find ways of decomissioning it safely. Princess Atherton was delighted at having won the war, but less impressed at the state of Grevalon, which was still reeling from the murder of Aldred Spellthorne. Silana also personally mourned her brother Kaarlo, who lost his life on campaign 10 years ago. Coletta le Fey was not a suspect on anyone's lips, but her increasingly boisterous attempts at saving her derailed master plan made her presence more and more obvious. For instance, her spell - to kill all male monarchs of Grevalon - was now useless because a female was on the throne. To this end, Coletta attempted to corrupt Silana by turning her into a witch, but her fiendish machinations failed. Coletta then resorted to attempts at corrupting those around her, such as chambermaids and members of the Council of Arcanists. The events led to a subsequent war known as the War against the Syndicate. Trivia *The events of this war are shaped by those of the Second War in Warcraft. *The Veteran Appreciation Programme, initiated by Princess Silana to reward the soldiers of the two Earth Wars following victory in 11 AGY, is inspired by a real-life initiative by Princess Mary. Category:Tragic events Category:Aeon of the Champion articles Category:Aeon of the Champion events Category:Smurf Manian's articles Category:Conflicts